After fire, dog owner claims 'no abuse at all'

Says he may give up young pets

BLOOMING GROVE — The owner of 16 dogs, including nine that died Wednesday during a fire at his rented Wildwood Trail house, said he was trying to give the animals away but could not find homes for them in the poor economy.

BLOOMING GROVE — The owner of 16 dogs, including nine that died Wednesday during a fire at his rented Wildwood Trail house, said he was trying to give the animals away but could not find homes for them in the poor economy.

Making a living has been tough of late for Jeff Blumenthal, 59, a food truck vendor who said he owned five of the six adult dogs in the bunch for more than a decade. He said one of the females got pregnant just before Blumenthal moved into the 7 Wildwood Trail home he has rented for less than a year from a Rockland County couple.

Blumenthal claimed that 10 of the dogs belonged to that dog's litter. Those dogs were about 6 months old when the fire broke out, he said.

Blumenthal said he sold some of the puppies, but then thought of giving them away to an animal rescue. An out-of-work mechanic who wears many hats, he was struggling to earn a living, he said.

"I was trying to make money from the food vendor truck, but things are just bad; this was just the icing on the cake," he said of the fire.

More than 50 firefighters battled the blaze, which started around 11:15 a.m. The fire's cause is under investigation.

Blooming Grove Animal Control Officer Melissa Veraldo said she is looking into possible animal abuse charges against Blumenthal. The six dogs rescued from the fire showed no evidence of physical abuse, but did appear to be malnourished and afraid of people, she said.

Some were "painfully skinny," she said.

A total of seven dogs survived the blaze. The house is located within the Glenwood Hills section of the Mountain Lodge Park-Glenwood Hills community.

Blumenthal claimed that only two of the rescued dogs were unhealthy because of worms. He did not have money to take the animals to a vet, so Blumenthal tried treating them on his own, he said. "It was basically just me," he said, "but there was no abuse at all."

After the fire, Blumenthal received a call from an animal rescue group asking when it could take the animals off his hands, he said.

Attempts to reach the rescue group Thursday were not successful.

Veraldo said that Blumenthal seemed genuinely upset at the loss of the animals that died in the fire. At the same time, Blumenthal has not indicated that he wants any of the rescues back, she said.

Blumenthal said he would likely give up the young dogs, as he is temporarily homeless.